Seoul Kitchen

Korean Home Cooking in Newburgh

In late 2016, Beacon's favorite Korean restaurant, Seoul Kitchen, moved across the bridge to Newburgh's Liberty Street, to join the handful of other eateries that make up the city's Restaurant Row. Heewon Marshall runs the one-woman operation, chatting with customers as she serves up steaming plates of bibimbap, kimchi dumplings, and spicy tofu hot pots. "I made a workplace for myself because nobody would hire me," she says. A Korean immigrant by way of Japan, Marshall was shocked by the dearth of professional opportunities for foreigners. "It takes time and loneliness," she says of her vocational soul-searching. "But I don't like the word impossible." After she married her current husband, her cooking future began to crystallize. "My food is nothing special," she humbly declares. "It's just Korean home cooking—middle-class food!" But her husband and friends couldn't get enough of it, and eventually she opened Seoul Kitchen. "I am happy to be here all the time—slow or busy," Marshall says. "When it's slow, I think about the menu or read the New York Times." Authenticity is the trademark of Marshall's cooking and hospitality. "I don't deal with smartphones," she says. "I ask people to put them down, enjoy the food, and look at each other." (845) 563-0796

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